


This World Is Too Dark For Heroes

by IHaveNothingToDo



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Marinette is the new Chat, Not Really Character Death, bad gone worse, but people die and he nearly does so, dark chat, good gone bad, ill add it, just a heads up, ladybug isnt around, the chapters will be p short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-18 22:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12397254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IHaveNothingToDo/pseuds/IHaveNothingToDo
Summary: Adrien dons the mask of Chat Noir to save people, to do some good.Chat Noir saves people who don't want it and watches too many others die, this isn't goodMarinette is content to see the good in people, to help in small ways.She never thought a man in a black mask would take that from her, even with as slowly as he did.





	1. There is no 'Good'

Adiren Agrest has been used his whole life. 

His father, his ‘friends’, random people off the street wanting a taste of fame.

He’s sick of it.

So when a strange man offers him a chance to restore the balance Adrien agrees

He dons the mask of Chat Noir, and protects the people in the city he loves.

But the longer wears the mask the more the truth stands out.

That mugger’s family was killed by a drunk driver and he just wants to live to see tomorrow.

The girl’s dad is abusing her but she has no other family and everyone knows the streets are dangerous, so she asks Chat to leave her alone.

People attack people without thinking

People attack with too much thinking

There is no good

 

* * *

 

Then Chat saves a young girl from a group of rapists and she thanks him when they are safe. 

Chat reels back.

In all his time of being Chat Noir no one has ever thanked him. Their lucky stars, the rabbit's foot in their pocket but never him.

Never Chat, who hurts and bleeds and lies to help these people.

The girl introduces herself as Marinette and asks if he wants a cookie. He parents run a bakery and while she doesn't have anything to give him, their cookies are the best in all of Paris.

Chat follows her dumbly and Marinette talks on and on about her day, she’s nervous but it’s helping.

Her father liked her macaroons, the ones from a recipe she’s been trying to perfect for _ages_. Nino made the best mashup every and she still can’t get it out of her head. Alya’s littlest sister just turned 3 and she’s so stinkin _cute_ it’s not fair.

Chat soaks it up, every word, meaningless to Marinette but a new perspective for Chat. She tells her parents that he saved her and they tell him he’s always welcome in their home.

Chat leaves with a new look on the world and a box of sweets

 

 

That new look doesn't last long.

 


	2. What Would The World Look Like If I Was Next To You?

A mother drowned her kids before killing herself right in front of him, Chat being just a little too late.

But the lady's husband was planning on taking her kids from her and moving away, but if she stopped her drug habit he wouldn't have to move. 

The world is a dark dark place and Chat begins to wonder why he ever bothers anymore. 

He's ready to give up, to surrender the mask back to the odd little man and try to forget the evil of the place he lives. 

Then someone is jumping up and down on a balcony waving their arms frantically and Chat dives to save them, he's seen to much death tonight tonight to just let them fall. 

When he tackles them back on the balcony they are laughing. Chat is yelling at them for doing that but it's Marinette underneath him and she's smiling. "I didn't mean to scare you kitty cat. I just wanted to see how you're doing." Chat is stunned yet again and Marinette asks what happened as he staggers blindly back, images of those kid's blue blue lips flashing across his vision. 

When he shakes his head, Marinette steps closer and wraps him in a hug. "You don't have to tell me." she whispers. 

For the first time in a year Chat is the one being saved. 

 

* * *

 

 

He sees her more frequently after that. 

In passing as Adrien when she's a stuttering mess, wondering why a model would talk to her of all people. 

In the night when she's fallen asleep on her chaise lounge in the warmer months. (he tucks her in and continues on his way) 

In greetings called into the night when she catches his silhouette in the dusky light.

He sees her and in her, a new world.

 

* * *

 

 

Marinette is fond of Chat. 

He carries so much weight on those slender shoulders she wonders how he doesn't break from it all. She's seen the blank emptiness in his eyes when he thinks she's not looking. She hears him check up on her at night, breathing ragged and harsh. He sees the ugly of the world and she realizes she's quite content to view her world through the rose tinted lenses of youth. (that's why she doesn't accept a pair of earrings and a promise of strength. She likes looking for the good in people, and if wearing a mask takes that away and leaves her a hollow as Chat? She'll pass thanks)

Some days when Chat passes by her window she wonders what it would be like to run alongside him. 

As an equal. 

As a partner. 

  
But then she remembers the void in his heart, the emptiness of his eyes and those thoughts pass. 


	3. A Hero For A Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's only human after all

Chat still saves people and only one person still saves Chat.

* * *

Marinette brings him cookies and stories on warm nights and invites him into her loft on cold ones for movies and a hug.

She's a reminder that there is good in the world.

That there are still people to be saved.

Still a purpose to fight for.

* * *

Marinette never wanted to be a hero but she guesses to Chat she is.

She’s seen him at his lowest, crying silently over her balcony railing.

Seen him punch the brick of the alley below her house until his knuckles bled thought the leather.

So she makes cookies and tells her parents that it’s stress relief for her. (they don't notice her sneaking them upstairs to give them to a stray cat)

She tells Chat about her life. How Adrien talked to her today and she got so flustered she ran into a pole but he helped her up so it's a win in her book. She tells him how Alya’s littlest sister like riding around on her shoulders and Alya swears she’s more Marinette’s sister than her’s. How Kim finally asked out Alex and they make sure the cutest couple!

She lets him come in from the cold and makes him watch cheesy Hallmark movies with her till they both can't keep there eyes open anymore.

Marinette thinks about her hero in black and wonders if she’s doing as much good as he is.


	4. Do I Have To Die To Save You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being a cat is hard

Being Adrien is harder than being Chat. 

Chat can at least hit something but Adrien has to smile like he means it and relax his balled up fists. 

Adrien has to take lectures from his father on not hanging out with the wrong crowd and Chat  _ is _ the wrong crowd. 

Adrien likes being Adrien less and less. 

* * *

 

Marinette strives to be better. 

She's decided that if she can save Chat she can save someone else too! 

So she helps her parents with the bakery more, helps Kim woo Alex, helps , helps, helps. 

She too wants to save the world. 

She just doesn't want to be killed in the process. 


	5. Guns Are Never A Good Thing

Chat was nearly killed last night.

People are getting smart, learning to travel in groups, carry weapons.

Chat’s all for protection as long as it’s isn’t protection from him.

Carrying a gun is useless unless you're a good shot.

They weren't a good shot

* * *

 

Marinette hears gunshots and a half a second later there is knocking at the window.

Chat drops in bleeding and pale and Marinette nearly loses her lunch.

‘Marinette doesn't like the sight of blood’ it’s a hazy thought as Chat watches Marinette wrap the bandage around his leg again and gag a bit at the red spots on the floor.

The bullet just grazed him but it’s bleeding and Marinette apparently doesn't like blood.

* * *

Marinette doesn't like blood so she cleans Chat up as quick as she can and tell him to be careful on the way home.

She wonders how he does it. Staring danger right in the face.

Staring down the barrel of a gun.


	6. Wounded But Famous

 

Adrien stares down the barrel of a gun and nearly laughs from the irony of it.

Chat Noir staring down the barrel of a gun and not being able to do anything about it.

Who would have thought limping and being famous was a death sentence?

 

* * *

 

 

Adrien gets shot and there's no Chat to save him. 

Instead it's a little girl walking home with her mom.

 

Her screams get him the help he needs.


	7. Another Bullet Is No Good

When Chat hasn't been around for months Marinette starts to worry. 

Something must have happened. A fight? A broken bone? A stabbing? 

Marinette gasps as her mind runs wild with worse case scenarios  

"Another bullet?"� she whispers to the empty air.

 

* * *

****

"Another bullet." Adrien freezes at the words, he's not supposed to be up but his shoulder hurts and he's bored. Adrien wishes he never got up.

"Another? What do you mean another?" Adrien vaguely recognizes the voice as Nathalie's. Any late night discussion with Nathalie is never good.

"Another shot taken at the Agrest name..." 

Adrien tries to creep back to his room but his bad leg betrays him. 

He falls with a loud thump and a voice from behind him gasps at the same time Nathalie's does from behind the door. Adrien looks over his shoulder at the maid standing there begging her to help him but she's not looking at. 

She's looking at the door he was standing in behind and the black mask dangled between his father's fingertips. 

Adrien meets his father's icy gaze, Nathalie behind him.

'There is no good in the world' he thinks bitterly.

'No good at all'


	8. The Slow Death Of Good People

There is no good. 

 

Marinette doesn't want to think it but it's there a dark whisper between her other thoughts. Sliding between them. Poisoning them with darkness. 

 

"There's no good." it whispers

 

"People are dying." Marinette shuts off the news, reporting on a recent mugging gone wrong. "There is still god. There is still good. There is still good." Marinette chants under her breath. 'There is still good.'

 

She looks out the window, hands braced on the sill. There is no silhouette running along rooftops tonight. There hasn't been a silhouette in  _ months. _

 

'Chat abandoned you." The last thought stings the most, prickling at the backs of her eyes and pulling hard on her heart. 

 

Marinette tells herself the tears rolling down her cheeks are for all the people he can't save anymore. 

****

 

 

She forgets one of those people is her. 


	9. I'm Waiting But You're Gone.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gone forever

 

Chat is ripped violently away from Adrien and the world is as black as his mask.

 

 

Locked in his new room, a windowless, plain, empty place, Adrien gets angry.

 

He can't save anyone now.

 

Not even the ones who want to be saved.

 

  
He wants to be saved.

 

He wants someone to swing in through the night and take him away from his father.

 

From his pain.

 

Adrien can't see the good anymore and Chat can't be saved.

 

This world is too dark for saviors anyways

 

* * *

 

Marinette is waiting for Chat.

 

Waiting.

 

Waiting.

 

Waiting.

 

He never comes

 

 

Marinette looks at the red fabric just barely peeking out from the depths of her closet.

 

She looks back out the window, eyes scanning for even the slightest hint of Chat.

 

“I'm waiting for you kitty.” she whispers. “But I can't wait much longer.”

 

A tear, sliver as moon above her, slides down her face.

 

“Where are you?”

 

The dark between the city's buildings seems to whisper an answer

 

‘Gone.’ it breathes.

 

 

 

‘Gone forever’


	10. Chapter 10

Marinette won't talk to Adrien, won't even smile. It’s been a year since he’s seen her.

 

A year since Chat disappeared.  

 

Adrien's watching her wither away.

 

Sunny happy Marinette? She’s dying. Adrien’s watching her die.

 

Watching her become Chat.

 

Watching her grow as dark as the world around her.

 

He sees himself in her, back when he was still both Chat and Adrien, in the beginning.

 

He sees her tense every time Chloe sneers.

 

Sees her hands curl into fists.

 

Sees her inner struggle of wanting to be Marinette and knowing Chat is needed.

 

He wonders if she’ll take the name Chat. Maybe she’ll take a new name.

 

Maybe she’ll be better at it than he was.

 

But no matter what happens, Adrien can't do anything but watch.  


* * *

Marinette finds a set of black earrings.

 

She knows what they mean.

 

Knows their innocent appearance is as deceiving as the cheerful smiles she forces herself to wear.

 

Marinette swallows her fear, puts them in her ears, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

 

She’s too dainty to be a Chat, to clumsy.

 

Marinette glances over her shoulder at the red fabric in the closet.

 

A ladybug, she decides firmly. A ladybug for luck.

 

A scream pierces the evening air and Marinette holds a bated breath, some small part of her wishing, hoping, a black cat would come and take this from her.

 

Take her back to when she could see light in everything.

 

A second scream follows moments later and a something in her chest withers.

 

Squaring her shoulders Marinette picks up a small scrap of fabric and lays it over her face.

 

If Chat isn't going to do a anything?

 

 

  
She will.


End file.
